


It started with a phone call

by Mattboydsbutt



Series: The Flash and Arrow tumblr prompts [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Friends to Lovers, Go Easy On Me, This is my first theallen fic, i just love them so much okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-03
Updated: 2015-12-03
Packaged: 2018-05-04 19:44:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5346317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mattboydsbutt/pseuds/Mattboydsbutt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barry called Thea about how things are going in Starling. He didn't think it would turn into actual conversations and coffee dates.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It started with a phone call

It was a quiet night in Central city which concerned Barry. Zoom was still out there, up to god knows what and it was quiet. Too quiet. But he took it because he needed it. He needed a break. He didn’t want to admit it but he really really needed it, but now that it was, he didn’t know what to do with himself. He decided that he’d see what was going on in Starling.

 

He layed down on his bed and took out his phone and scrolled until he found Felicity’s name. It rang three times and Barry was about to hang up when she finally answered.

 

“Barry? Everything okay?” Felicity’s panicked voice rang through his ear.

 

“Yeah no everything's fine. I just wanted to see how things were there.”

 

“Um... can you call tomorrow, maybe? Oliver and I are having a date night and well… you’re kind of interrupting.”

 

Barry smiled because those two deserved it. Really. He rushed out an apology and told her he’d call tomorrow.

 

When he hung up the phone he was still at a loss of what to do. He really wanted to know how things were going with Darhk. Was he being low key too? Was there some kind of bad guy meeting that they didn’t know about?

 

He scrolled through his phone again. He could call Diggle, or Laurel, but he passed them too. He kept scrolling until he stopped on Thea’s name. He paused over the call button. He’d only met Thea a couple of times after their first introduction. He didn’t know if he should call. He sat staring at her name for a good five minutes before hitting the call button. It only rang once before she picked up.

 

“Barry? What's wrong?” Thea sounded as worried as Felicity when he called her.

 

“Why does everyone keep asking that? I can’t just call to see how things are?”

 

Thea laughed. “I mean you can but don’t you usually call Felicity or Oliver for that?”

 

“They’re doing date night I guess,” Barry said and Thea laughed again.

 

“Well good for them, I guess that’s why I haven’t heard From Ollie for a few hours.”

 

“So. How are things there?”

 

“Fine. Darhk is being his usual douchey self. But it's nothing we can’t handle. How about Starling, how is Zoom?”

 

“Quiet. Things are quiet. And it's kind of terrifying if I’m going to be honest. What could he possibly be up to that makes him this quiet?”

 

Thea hummed out an ‘I don’t know’ and then their phone call got silent. Thea broke the silence a couple seconds later.

 

“He broke your back right? How did that feel? I mean. Not physical but…when you were paralyzed for that short time…did you ever feel, I don’t know…relieved? That you weren't the Flash? That you could go back to being just Barry?”

 

Barry paused a moment before answering. “I mean, maybe deep down it was there. But no. I didn’t feel it. I was more scared that I wouldn’t be able to be the Flash again. I love doing what I do. I mean, yeah it's dangerous and it's scary at times but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Why? Do you wish you could go back to being just Thea Queen?”

 

Thea chuckled. “I don’t think there was ever a time where I was just Thea Queen, Barry. But yeah sometimes I wish I could go back to when I was Thea Queen and Oliver was Oliver. Maybe it's just how I became Speedy that makes me rethink it sometimes.”

 

Barry was confused. They never really explained to him what how Thea survived the night she was attacked. They never explained how she became Speedy.

“What do you mean? How did you become Speedy?”

 

“Which part? The one where Roy left and left his gear behind for me? Or when Oliver and the group dunked me in a pit and I came back bloodthirsty for a guy that was already dead?”

 

Barry was dumbfounded. Felicity had mentioned the Lazarus pit before when Sara was unhinged. Nobody mentioned that Thea had been put in the pit too.

“You-you got put in the Pit? I mean. How? Why are you? Okay I have so many questions,” Barry said instead of blabbing every question that came to mind. And that’s how they spent the better part of the next hour. Thea quietly telling him about the pit and the blood lust. She didn’t talk about the attack though. She would skip over any time that part came up. Barry knew she didn’t want to talk about it. He wondered if she had talked to anyone about it. She couldn’t keep that bottled up, it would just consume her and make things worse.

 

“Felicity and Oliver told you about the lightning, right,” Barry asked and when Thea confirmed that they in fact did tell her, he started talking about it.

Not becoming the Flash, not being in a coma. He talked about the actual lightning. How it felt, the pain, being alone when you think you’re about to die. He was trying to be open so she felt like she could be open about what happened to her. When Barry talked about feeling alone in death she finally spoke up.

 

“I know how that feels. I laid on my floor, feeling everything and just knowing. I’m going to die here. Alone with no one with me. That was the worst feeling. Not the pain or trying to breathe through all the blood it was feeling like I was going to die alone. When Ollie came in the door I didn’t feel relieved that I was going to be saved. I was relieved that I wasn’t going to die alone, you know?” 

 

Barry was glad Thea felt okay enough with him to talk about this. He didn’t expect a phone call about how things are in Starling city to turn into an hour long conversation about near death but he felt relaxed. He didn’t feel on edge like he was before the phone call.

After that they moved to lighter topics. What it was like working with Cisco all the time. If Oliver ever really did get cold without the sleeves. After another hour Barry noticed the time and cursed.

 

“Thea I have to go, I have work tomorrow and if I stay up any later there is no way that I’m going to get up to go.”

“Okay! It was good to hear from you Barry. Don’t be a stranger. If you ever want to know how Starling is. give me a ring. If I don’t answer I’m probably out doing Speedy things.”

 

She laughed and Barry laughed with her. They said their goodbyes and Barry laid his phone on the stand next to his bed. He hadn’t talked on the phone that long in a while and it felt nice. It was good talking to Thea.

 

After that it became a weekly thing. Barry would call once a week to ask about Starling. Thea would ask about Central. Then after the work talk was out of the way they’d talk about their week. What stupid thing someone had done at the club. What stupid name Cisco had given a Meta- human that week. Barry enjoyed their talks and he told Thea that. Thea told him that she felt the same way. She called it our down time, when she talked to Barry and he couldn’t help but to agree.

 

Once a week turned to two and then three. Barry would just call when he saw something that reminded him of something they had talked about the last time they spoke. Thea would text him pictures of cats doing stupid things. Barry’s favorite was a cat with a green mask on. Thea had captioned it, “Grumpy cat or the Arrow?”

 

Barry texted Thea when Cisco was talking about the new Meta and Cisco got annoyed and asked who Barry was talking to. Barry told him it's no one.

For some reason he didn't want to tell anyone the thing, whatever this thing was. That he had going with Thea. He felt like if he talked about it something would come around and ruin it.

 

That night Thea called him laughing at Cisco being ridiculous. Barry told her how he felt about not wanting to tell anyone. He asked her if that sounded stupid and Thea assured him it's not.

“I haven’t told anyone either. I just feel like if I do something will ruin it."

Barry was just glad he wasn’t alone in this feeling.

“Hey Barry, can I ask you something?”

“Yeah what's up?”

“I was thinking, maybe... Since we both get tired of our city every once in awhile, I was wondering if maybe you wanted to meet up in Coast city sometime? I mean get some coffee and talk face to face. Just get away. I’m kind of feeling the need to get away, even for just a couple hours.”

“Yeah. Yeah I’d like that.” He pulled his phone away from his ear to look at the calendar on his phone. It was Monday and he didn’t work tomorrow.

“You want to go tomorrow? It's kind of the only day that I don’t have to work this week.”

Thea paused and Barry guessed she was looking at her calender then too.

“Yeah tomorrow works for me. This will be awesome. I’ll see you tomorrow, Barry.”

Barry said his goodbye and hung up. He stared at his phone for a minute thinking to himself, _Did I just make a date with Thea Queen?”_


End file.
